Area sheriff's races offer plenty of choices

Longtime Barrow County Sheriff Joel Robinson is retiring in January after 20 years as the county's top lawman.

With Barrow County on the cusp of a new era in law enforcement leadership, there are plenty of candidates in other Athens-area counties hoping to usher their sheriffs into early retirement.

Oglethorpe and Clarke county voters will decide in November whether to stick with incumbent Democratic sheriffs Mike Smith and Ira Edwards, respectively, or to give their challengers a try.

Edwards, first elected in 2000, will face independent candidate Kenneth Brown, a Athens-Clarke police officer, while Smith, first elected in 2004, will face Republican challenger Bill Fincher, a former sheriff's deputy in Oglethorpe and Greene counties.

In Madison County, the July 15 primary will give voters a chance to whittle down the long list of men running to challenge Sheriff Clayton Lowe, a Democrat first elected in 1996. Lowe will face Democratic challenger Troy Asmus, a Clarke County sheriff's deputy, in the primary, and the winner will face one of three Republican candidates - Athens-Clarke police officer Larry Smith, Oglethorpe County sheriff's deputy John Wesley Dove or former Madison County deputy Kip Thomas - in November.

The race to replace Robinson as Barrow County sheriff, like the race in Madison County, will start with the July 15 primary but stretch into November.

Voters will decide in this month's Republican primary whether Winder Police Sgt. Jud Smith or Barrow County Chief Deputy Murray Kogod will face Barrow County sheriff's deputy James Bonnemer, a Democrat in November.

Jackson County voters will chose their next sheriff in the Republican primary July 15, when former 37-year law enforcement veteran Jim Keinard will face Jackson County's 25-year veteran Sheriff Stan Evans.

Jackson County

Each challenger Evans has faced over the past decade has accused him of good ol' boy politics and of spending more time working at his family's funeral home in Commerce than in the sheriff's office.

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Presidental Candidates - Fundraising - IssuesRep. Paul Broun bio | Sen. Saxby Chambliss bio2008 Primary map | Calendar | MORE NEWS"I'd like to ask Jim - what exactly is your definition of a good ol' boy, because I want to find out if I am one or not?" Evans said grinning, after Keinard accused him of good ol' boy politics at Jackson County candidates' debate in Commerce in June.

It's not a new argument. It's the only one that has ever been used against him, said Evans, who took office in 1985 as the youngest sheriff in Georgia.

"I go by the opinion of the people of Jackson County more than I do the opinion of my opponents - you know, they might be a little biased," Evans said.

He takes the jabs in stride, and admits that he may not have as much training as Keinard or the breadth of law enforcement experience that Keinard has racked up in more than 37 years. But he has a lot more experience being the Jackson County sheriff and dealing with the people of Jackson County, Evans said.

Keinard argues that the sheriff's department is woefully understaffed and that Evans doesn't understand the stress on patrol deputies because Evans has never been a patrol officer, Keinard said.

He runs the department as a politician, not a law enforcement officer, Keinard said.

Evans only has two investigators assigned to narcotics investigations and only 35 trained deputies cover the 342-square-mile county and handle courthouse security, he said. Only four road deputies go on patrol at any given time, Jackson County's chief deputy said last fall.

The sheriff's office does the best it can with the funding provided by taxpayers, Evans said, and more deputies would mean higher taxes.

"We only have a limited amount money," Keinard said. "We need to learn how to stretch our dollars and still provide the necessary coverage that the people of Jackson County expect."

The sheriff's office could be much more effective if it teamed with the municipal police departments the county to form investigative task forces to target drugs, gangs or domestic violence, Keinard said.

Barrow County

Both Republican candidates for sheriff say they would modernize law enforcement in the county, and Smith and Kogod both agree that cooperation with city police departments is essential to successfully battling growing drug and gang problems.

The difference, according to Smith, is that he can do the job in a more cost-effective way.

"As I've indicated in the past, I feel that the sheriff's office should perform the law enforcement services required without burdening the taxpayers with excessive spending," he said. "I believe that the sheriff, as an elected official, should look for ways to save money whenever possible."

Smith said that the department's $13 million budget has grown faster than the county's demand for services during the four years that Kogod has been chief deputy.

Kogod, who has worked in the sheriff's office for seven years, points out that Smith has never worked there.

"In order to maintain the level and quality of service needed to keep the citizens of Barrow County safe, your sheriff's office must have a leader that has experience in each of the areas of service that the sheriff's office provides," Kogod said. "(The office needs) a leader that has an understanding of continuously evolving laws that apply to each of those areas of service, a leader who has experience in the preparation and management of multimillion-dollar budgets and a leader with the experience of overseeing the actions of more than 190 employees performing the work of your sheriff's office."

Democratic candidate James Bonnemer will face either Kogod or Smith in November's general election.

Madison County

Voters will have no shortage of options when they go to the polls next week.

Democratic voters will be asked to choose between Lowe, in his fourth term, and 20-year law enforcement veteran Asmus.

The biggest issues the next sheriff faces are a growing drug problem and a recent rash of property crimes fueled by the failing economy, Lowe said.

"I intend to make a sincere effort to ensure that the Sheriff's Office and jail are adequately staffed, trained and equipped to meet the ever increasing demands upon my office due to the constantly growing population in the county," Lowe wrote in an Athens Banner-Herald questionnaire.

Asmus agreed the sheriff would have to work to improve the office and the service provided to county residents. He will work to increase deputies' pay in order to decrease turnover, he said.

GOP voters will choose among Smith, Dove and Thomas, who have all made tackling the county's drug problem their No. 1 campaign issue.

All three candidates said they would put a resource officer in every school in the county.

Thomas said he would work to find grant money to create a county drug task force.

Smith would work to create a wider network of Neighborhood Watch groups and ask to have drug crimes prosecuted more severely, he said.

Dove would like to bar drug offenders from returning to the county after they are convicted and serve their time, he said.